From the Atlanta Business Chronicle article, “Lawmakers pass loophole-riddled ethics bill“- April 5, 2013:
For all its loopholes, however, this year’s bill marks an important philosophical shift in how Georgia plans to address ethics in government, said Doug Chalmers, managing member of The Political Law Group LLC.
“Georgia has long been a state that simply required disclosure,” he said. “Now, we’re banning certain activity by lobbyists.”
Chalmers said the bill strikes the right balance in that it strengthens ethics requirements while neither encouraging the filing of “gotcha” complaints nor risking a lawsuit.
“There is a First Amendment right to lobbying,” he said. “You don’t want to invite a constitutional challenge.”
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